Stand firm: Resisting the self-improvement craze

ABC News, Australia/May 23, 2017

By Mira Adler-Gillies

Sigmund Freud once told us that the best any of us could hope for is ordinary unhappiness.

These days, positive thinking, personal growth and the relentless pursuit of happiness are pretty much moral imperatives. And there's no shortage of "experts" producing blogs, podcasts and books that promise to help you on your journey.

But a counter-culture is emerging.

Svend Brinkmann, a Danish psychology professor and leader of the anti-self-help movement, says it's time to reject the self-improvement ideology, refuse the cult of positive thinking and stand firm.

"We are only allowed to be positive, we are only allowed to be happy and anything that threatens these states of mind is considered wrong."

All that is painful, all that feels overwhelming and unbearable — whether domestically, socially, even politically and culturally — must therefore be repressed, he argues.

In a culture of mandated positivity, if we are unhappy we only have ourselves to blame.

"People's problems are explained with reference to the fact that they weren't positive enough," Professor Brinkmann said.

"It is the individual who is to blame for what happens even when the cause of the problem is social or structural or organisational."

Not allowed to stand still

But there's a paradox. While positive psychology has become more broadly accepted, rates of depression continue to rise.

Professor Brinkmann makes sense of this contradiction by arguing that we need to reflect on societal development and the frenetic pace of change that defines contemporary life.

"We change our jobs, our partners, where we live, much more frequently than we used to. So we are not allowed to put down roots. We are not allowed to stand still at any time."

"We should always be on the move and we should be responsible, individually, for our personal development, the development of our competencies and the realisation of our inner potential."

According to Professor Brinkmann, this relentless pursuit is weighing us down.

And yet, despite the seeming impossibility of permanent happiness and fulfillment, self-help and self-development remain hugely popular. There is very clearly a need — something is being sought.

Whether the answer is to be found in a juice cleanse or in Stoic philosophy, the ongoing success of the self-help industry reveals the anxiety and instability that characterises modern life.

"Many people are simply looking for a quick fix solution and these self-help books really promise a quick fast easy solution to problems, which I think is illusory."

"But the other problem, which is actually deeper, is about a fundamental lack of meaning in life. The self-help books promise to orient the individual toward something that is meaningful."

"The problem is that what is meaningful, according to the self-help industry, is always what is within the individual; so the person to must look within themselves, listen to their inner voice, find meaning within.

This whole inward turn, Professor Brinkmann argues, is only making us more unhappy:

"People become exhausted and we know this kind of mental exhaustion is a key factor in many cases of depression."

Self-development, however, was not always such a profoundly oppressive pursuit. In the 1960s self-actualisation was about liberation, it emerged as a reaction to rigid social structures. Severed from its revolutionary origins, Professor Brinkmann argues, self-development has been co-opted by a happiness industry that tells us our ordinary misery is unacceptable and promises us fulfilment through self-growth.

"It is exactly what society wants you to do. It is exactly what consumer society wants you to do: to be constantly on the move, constantly adaptable, flexible and changing all the time, to put it simply, so they can sell you new products; you should never be content, you should never be satisfied, you should always look for more."

"This is the new guise of the self-realisation ideology and it is no longer helping us."

"Perhaps we even need to go back to some of the virtues that were lost in the much needed counter-culture that emerged in the 1960s."

To counter a self-help industry that makes constant demands on consumers — through affirmations such as, "I choose to be present in all I do", "I am the architect of my life; I build its foundation and choose its contents", "I choose my choice" — Professor Brinkmann offers a handy seven-step manual.

A dose of negativity

Professor Brinkmann's anti-self-help guide promises liberation through a dose of refreshing negativity based on Roman Stoic thought.

He argues for a return to civic virtues, duties and ethical obligations.

"Roman Stoics were the self-help authors of their day ... it's more important to be a decent human being than to be yourself all the time, to fulfil your obligations," he said.

"We need a language with which to talk about those aspects of life and I don't think the whole self-improvement/self-optimisation/self-development language is adequate."

Here are his seven tips for moving forward:

1. Cut out the navel gazing
2. Focus on the negative in your life
3. Learn to say "no"
4. Suppress your feelings
5. Sack your coach
6. Read a novel (not a self-help book or inspiring biography)
7. Dwell on the past